Certain automatic transmissions include planetary gear sets. Components of the planetary gear sets are selectively coupled to each other or a casing of the automatic transmission to provide various gear ratios between an input shaft and an output shaft of the automatic transmission. The planetary gear set components can include a sun gear, a carrier and a ring gear. Planet gears may be mounted to the carrier with a pin.
Conventional mounting of the planet gears to the carrier has certain drawbacks. For example, the pin may be pressed or staked to the carrier by deforming a head of the pin in order to mount a plant gear on the pin to the carrier. However, a staked pin is not removable from the carrier without damaging or destroying the pin and/or carrier. As another example, a snap ring fixes the pin to the carrier such that the pin is not rotatable relative to the carrier, and a fixed pin can cause additional drag within the planetary gear set and negatively affect an efficiency of the planetary gear set.
Accordingly, a planet carrier for a planetary gear set that includes features for facilitating servicing of the planet carrier or planet gears would be useful. In addition, a planet carrier for a planetary gear set that includes features for operating with reduced drag relative to a planetary carrier with fixed pins would be useful.